Biorion 99 unites, for the first time, the three major international organizations dedicated to the investigation of iron metabolism in a combined meeting of the 7th Conference of the International Association for the Study of Disorders of Iron Metabolism, the 14th International Conference on Proteins of Iron Metabolism and the 5th International Symposium on Iron Transport, Storage and Metabolism. Bioiron 99, co-sponsored by the World Health Organization (WHO), will be held in Sorrento, a town near Naples, Italy, from May 23 to 28, 1999. Bioiron 99 will provide a forum for scientists working on different aspects of iron metabolism to discuss the recent explosion of progress in the field, including the discovery of novel genes whose products are involved in the regulation of cellular iron uptake and distribution in humans. These new findings will be important for the diagnosis and treatment of major disorders of iron metabolism, including hereditary hemochromatosis, the most common autosomal recessive disorder in Caucasian populations, and iron deficiency, the most common cause of anemia worldwide. Iron is an essential nutrient for all living organisms and its metabolism follows common themes in microorganisms, plants, animals and human. Bioiron'99 is the first international iron conference to combine the meetings of the three major groups interested in clinical disorders of iron metabolism, the properties of the proteins involved in iron metabolism, and iron metabolism and transport in microorganisms. Individually, each of these groups has a long and distinguished tradition of promoting research in iron metabolism and has met periodically for decades. Bioiron'99 is organized in (i) plenary sessions intended to develop common themes of iron metabolism in different biological systems and to analyze the major disorders of iron metabolism and (ii) in parallel sessions dedicated to specific topics. Bioiron 99 will include a symposium on "New advances in iron chelation", an "International Consensus Conference on Hemochromatosis: Nomenclature, Diagnosis and Population screening", a satellite meeting on "Porphyria and Porphyrins" and poster sessions. The dissemination of important new research results to young investigators working in the field of iron metabolism is a specific aim of Bioiron'99.